In J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings, Bilbo warns, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

Bilbo was speaking of Hobbit-land when he issued that caution, but he could just as easily have been talking about New Jersey.

Especially this winter.

This winter, it seems that there’s nothing Mother Nature hasn’t served up in heaping portions.

New Jersey has had extreme cold, repeated snowfalls, and now the hazards of ice and power outages.

February is traditionally the snowiest month, and meteorologists are predicting a continuation of below-average temperatures.

Those who don’t embrace these extremes are at least prepared for them — to a point.

As Bilbo cautioned, hazards lurk at every turn. Of course, driving is especially tricky in wintry conditions. Modern automotive innovations such as four-wheel drive, antilock brakes and traction control can literally be lifesavers.

But when we become so accustomed to them that we rely on them routinely, we compromise the margin of safety they are designed to ensure.

But in winter, driving is only one hazard. Every technique ever devised for the removal of snow — be it plow, snowblower or old-fashioned shovel — involves a potential danger.

In the cold, batteries die, power equipment controls can freeze and everywhere there is a place to slip or fall. Exertion can lead to dehydration, even in extreme cold. There are the dangers of hypothermia — not just outdoors but inside during a power outage — and frostbite.

Even the fun side of winter comes with dangers, whether it’s a groomed downhill trail or the neighborhood sledding hill.

Take all of this together, add in the stress of severe weather and with more on the horizon, and things can go very wrong very quickly.

Our civilization has made our little planet so seemingly safe that it’s often easy to overlook commonplace hazards. This is not the time for such an oversight.